Air India may soon become headless, term of CMD Rohit Nandan to end on August 11

NEW DELHI: Just when Air India was finally showing some signs of stabilization, the airline is yet again staring at uncertainty. The three-year-term of its chairman and managing director Rohit Nandan ends on August 11 - exactly a month after the airline joined Star Alliance. The aviation ministry is yet to decide on the succession plan in the airline as the search for a full-time CMD has not begun.

The second half of UPA-II's term set an example of running important aviation agencies by giving additional charge to joint secretaries. The last aviation minister of UPA II directly ran those headless agencies through his trusted officers.

Bureau for Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) and Pawan Hans have been headless for years. Airports Authority of India (AAI) is handled by a joint secretary, although the process for appointing a chairman is now under way. And Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) got a full-time head in January as the US had downgraded it. The term of Airport Economic Regulatory Authority's (AERA) chairman ends this week and there is no successor in sight.

"Air India needs a clear line of authority in the form of a solid and stable chairman. The government should end the uncertainty at the earliest as AI is surviving on a promised bailout of Rs 30,000 crore from taxpayers' money and the looming state of being headless has already started causing damage to the airline," said an official.

Nandan, a UP cadre IAS officer of 1982 batch, took over as CMD just days after Star Alliance had put AI's application for membership on hold as the airline was in a very bad shape both financially and operationally. But in the last three years, the airline saw a marked change in fortunes.

The one thing that, however, remains incomplete in AI is the pay parity between employees of erstwhile AI and Indian Airlines. The resentment is strongest among pilots of Dreamliner, drawn from both AI and the erstwhile Indian Airlines, who get paid differently for doing the same job. The next CMD will have to tackle this as one of his or her first priorities.

Senior officials fear that unless there is a strong - and honest - person at the helm of AI, political and bureaucratic interference could ruin the airline yet again. "Prime Minister Modi is in favour of strong PSUs. That can happen if AI has a strong management where employees or power-brokers cannot manage transfer/postings or contracts through external influence. Such a thing is essential when AI joins a club of international airlines and any laxity will now get amplified," said a source.